Every Day Is for the Thief

When a young Nigerian man from New York visits family in Lagos, he is confronted with a city different from the one he remembers from 15 years earlier. Told in a series of short scenes, the young man's journey is chronicled from the infuriating Nigerian consulate in New York City to the multitude of people he encounters in Lagos and finally his journey back to America. In poetic language, the narrator describes the energy of Lagos, including bribing police officers, cheating gas station attendants, children waiting in line for precious water, riding a motor bike taxi through dangerous streets, and enduring the noise of generators and the stiflingly humid heat. During his visit, the young man finds that he has changed as much as Lagos. The vignettes are interesting, amusing, frightening, and strange in turns. Peter Jay Fernandez communicates the lassitude and heat of Lagos and its inhabitants as well as the frustration of the main character with his new view of the world.